(AS HE HELD CAPTAIN GULLIVER BETWEEN HIS FINGER AND THUMB FOR THE INSPECTION OF THE SAGES AND LEARNED MEN OF THE COURT) In Miniature see Nature's Power appear; Which wings the Sun-born Insects of the Air, Which frames the Harvest-bug, too small for Sight, And forms the Bones and Muscles of the Mite! Here view him stretch'd. The Microscope explains, That the Blood, circling, flows in human Veins; See, in the Tube he pants, and sprawling lies, Stretches his little Hands, and rolls his Eyes! Smit with his Countrey's Love, I've heard him prate Of Laws and Manners in his Pigmy State. By Travel, generous Souls enlarge the Mind, Which home-bred Prepossession had confin'd; Yet will he boast of many Regions known, But still, with partial Love, extol his own. He talks of Senates, and of Courtly Tribes, Admires their Ardour, but forgets their Bribes; Of hireling Lawyers tells the just Decrees, Applauds their Eloquence, but sinks their Fees. Yet who his Countrey's partial Love can blame? 'Tis sure some Virtue to conceal its Shame. The World's the native City of the Wise; He sees his Britain with a Mother's Eyes; Softens Defects, and heightens all its Charms, Calls it the Seat of Empire, Arts and Arms! Fond of his Hillock Isle, his narrow Mind Thinks Worth, Wit, Learning, to that Spot confin'd; Thus Ants, who for a Grain employ their Cares, Think all the Business of the Earth is theirs. Thus Honey-combs seem Palaces to Bees; And Mites imagine all the World a Cheese. When Pride in such contemptuous Beings lies, In Beetles, Britons, Bugs and Butterflies, Shall we, like Reptiles, glory in Conceit? Humility's the Virtue of the Great. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CAMOMILE TEA by KATHERINE MANSFIELD STANZAS FOR MUSIC (1) by GEORGE GORDON BYRON LATE LEAVES by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH by WILFRED OWEN BITTERNESS by VICTORIA MARY SACKVILLE-WEST VULTURES by GHALIB IBN RIBAH AL-HAJJAM |